"Celebrating a Grateful Day"

Our little four years old Grandson had his first "sleep over" at Grandma Nonni and Grand dad's house last night, (without big sister). He's been very excited for weeks in anticipation of this event. I went to pick him up, and he had his back pack on is back before I could say hello. Waiting to leave, while I visited with his mother (my daughter) took a great deal of patience on his part, of which he had little. When we finally were driving away from their house he said, "I bet my parents are going to miss me."  I said, "I bet you will miss them too." "No, only a little bit." Proud of his parents that he feels secure about who he is at this young age. We had a lovely evening. One of his favorite things to do is play the instruments from the big music chest.
Time goes by so fast, filled with the jarring business of life. I feel the need to slow down with disciplined intention and deep awareness, in order to capture the remarkable experiences of my grand children joyfully playing and growing in my presence. I celebrate the gifts of this good day with gratitude and grace. His mother took this photo.

This morning I worked outside cutting back ivy that is overgrown in front of the entrance Skagit Family Study Center. Seen here in the beautiful picture taken by Chuck's son Arron. That's me on the left, my husband Chuck in the middle, and Arron's wife, Amy, the beautiful tall woman on the right!
I needed to quite working after a couple of hours this morning as the heat was making it difficult for me and I was getting a blister on my thumb from cutting the ivy. It is 86 degrees today, a heat wave for this part of the world. I am now relaxing in the shade of our courtyard.

And thus I begin my July 2nd Constance Daily Post:

Moving on from activities and practices of dance routines and costume making, which I have not done for over a year now, Ive chosen to increase my yoga skills. For the last few months I have been learning yoga at the Ahimsa Yoga Studio. After my first child was born, I taught myself the sun salutation, the lion, and other stretching moves, which I have been practicing over the years. Its good to be in a class and learn about my body in different ways, and new yoga positions with a trained instructor. The health benefits have been good for me. The daily practice can be a challenge of course. I feel much better when I practice a few times a week. I notice I choose different food to eat and my energy when doing projects is more vibrant. I also don't get as sleepy during the day, that is if I get at least eight plus hours at night. I bought a membership to the YMCA and swim in the pool. all in all I am working to continue to keep my body and mind in bright spirit, it sounds so good when I am writing, the daily practice, takes daily practice.

Here's a person that has given me great inspiration and knowledge on the importance of the daily practice of self care..... Neuroscientist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. She wrote an article for Spirituality and Health magazine years ago, which I read. Since then I have been inspired by her determination and transformation through her book "My Stroke of Insight" and by listening to her interviews and Ted Talks over the years, which describe her insight into the understanding of "the emotional brain." Enjoy!

Here is Dr. Taylor's NPR interview with Terri Gross.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91861432

Here are the links to her Ted Talks about the "emotional brain"
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-Nearanatomical-Transformati
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight?language=en

It's July first and I've been thinking about my dance troupe friends. Here we are after our performance in 2011 and 2012. The Mediterranean Festival is always in July in West Seattle. We have been preforming together for over eight years. We made our own costumes and much of the jewelry in these two sets. Such fun. It takes about a year to learn the new routines that our instructor developed. This year we are not performing together at Medfest, which is July 18 and 19. Missing it.

This blog post is in honor of Veils of The Wahhadi.

Here's to our troupe!! 

http://www.babylonianensemble.com/detailpage.asp?ID=2309&Category=Mediterranean~Fantasy~Fest